GARY CAMERON/REUTERS/NEWSCOM
GOVERNMENT & POLICY
stopgap budget put in place by Congress for the first six months of the fiscal year. The full-year 2013 budget was completed in late March, which, the Administration said, was too late to be reflected in its budget documents. Of the total R&D budget, $68.1 billion would support basic and applied research—the R in R&D. This is a 7.5% increase from 2012. To offset some of this boost, the President would cut defense R&D, work done at the Departments of Defense and Energy, by 5.2%, putting total funding in this area at $73.2 billion in 2014. THE ADMINISTRATION R&D support
SCIENCE FUNDING President’s 2014 BUDGET proposal provides increases to R&D and education GOVERNMENT & POLICY STAFF
Every year, the President releases his budget request for the upcoming fiscal year, an action that by law is to take place on the first Monday in February. This year, however, with the fiscal chaos of raising the nation’s debt ceiling; the arrival of the automatic, across-the-board spending cuts called sequestration; and the delay of a final fiscal 2013 budget, President Barack Obama’s 2014 budget request came on April 10—nearly 10 weeks late. The 2014 budget request shows Obama’s plan is to rein in federal spending while investing in areas he believes are necessary for economic health and growth. Key among them is federal R&D, which the President has touted as being critical to U.S. economic prosperity. The proposed plan also replaces sequestration with a combination of new tax revenues and alternative spending cuts. The President’s $3.8 trillion budget request would provide $142.8 billion for federal R&D, a 1.3% increase from 2012. The 2014 request uses fiscal 2012 as a baseline for comparison because that was the last full-year budget passed by Congress and signed into law by the President when the 2014 request was being developed.
The Administration does provide budget information for 2013—which is included in the tables that follow—but this information is a projection based on the
FEDERAL R&D Defense work is nearly 50% of the overall proposed fiscal 2014 R&D budget. Agriculture 2% NSF 4% NASA 8%
Commercea 2%
Otherb 5% Defense 48%
Energy 9% Health & Human Services 22% 2014 R&D request = $143 billion NOTE: Budgets for R&D activities only. a Budget for 2014 includes a one-time $1 billion investment to launch institutes under the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation. b Agencies receiving 1% or less, including EPA, Education, Homeland Security, Interior, the Smithsonian, Transportation, and Veterans Affairs. SOURCE: White House Office of Management & Budget
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continues to focus on several ongoing priorities. These include sustaining the growth of the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy Office of Science, and the National Institute of Standards & Technology; supporting advanced manufacturing R&D; investing in clean energy technology; and preparing new innovators by ensuring effective science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. In addition, the President is proposing a few new initiatives. Among these is the BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Initiative to help understand the workings of the human brain. This multiyear initiative involves 2014 investments from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the National Institutes of Health, and NSF, as well as contributions from philanthropic groups. The President’s request comes as Congress has begun its own work on the 2014 budget. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate have passed nonbinding budget blueprints, which set the overall budget level as well as provide other funding direction. A conference committee is expected to begin working on ironing out differences between the two bills soon. The following review of proposed R&D spending at the federal agencies comes with some other caveats. The numbers are given mostly as budget obligations—that is, money that agencies can spend during the fiscal year. They may not match the amounts that agencies actually spend during the year. Also, the federal budget is a complicated document with various ways of adding up programs and totals. As a result, sometimes agency or department figures don’t agree with totals presented by the White House Office of Management & Budget.
GOVERNMENT & POLICY
NSF NSF: BASIC SCIENCE SET TO GROW With a proposed increase of 7.3% over fiscal 2012, the National Science Foundation’s focus on basic research has made the agency one of the lucky ones in the President’s 2014 budget proposal. The requested $7.6 billion 7.3% will mean significant increases in programs that the President cares about, including basic science research, science education, and advanced manufacturing. That situation is in contrast to 2013, when across-the-board budget cuts called sequestration took NSF’s budget in the opposite direction. The budget for 2013 was not finalized when the 2014 budget planning process was under way, but the agency estimates its 2013 budget to be around $6.9 billion, which takes into account a $356 million reduction for sequestration. In 2012, the agency’s budget was $7.1 billion. “Despite continuing budget uncertainties, the President’s 2014 budget recognizes NSF’s vital importance to the nation,” says Cora B. Marrett, NSF’s acting director. In the proposed budget, NSF’s research activities—which Marrett calls the centerpiece of NSF’s mission—get the biggest proposed boost, with a 7.9% increase from 2012 to $6.2 billion in 2014. The newly combined Office of International & Integrative Activities receives the largest percentage increase among the research directorates at 34.6% as compared with 2012, for a total 2014 budget of $537 million. This increase includes bumps in two programs: INSPIRE (Integrated NSF Support Promoting Interdisciplinary Research & Education) and the National Graduate Research Fellowships. Funding would almost double for the INSPIRE program, which supports many interdisciplinary research activities. The President’s budget proposes $31 million in 2014 for the program, up from $19 million in 2012. This increase will allow it to pursue even more interdisciplinary grants. In addition, NSF proposes a major increase to the National Graduate Research Fellowships—taking the program’s budget to $325 million in 2014, up $127 million over 2012. The larger budget will allow NSF to give 700 more fellowships, for a total of 2,700 in 2014. Even more NSF fellowships may be available in the future, in part because of a government-wide consolidation of science education programs. That consolidation
Agency is set for continued growth …
Research & related activities Geosciencesd Mathematical & Physical Sciences Computer & Information Science & Engineeringd Engineering Chemical, Bioengineering & Transport Systems Biological Sciences International & Integrative Activitiesd Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences Arctic Research Commission
2013b
2014c
$5,758.5 1,321.4 1,308.7
$5,689.0 1,321.1 1,308.9
$6,212.4 1,393.9 1,386.1
937.2 824.6 171.5
865.2 826.2 171.5
950.3 911.1 185.3
1.4 10.5 8.0
712.3 398.6 254.2 1.5
712.4 399.4 254.3 1.5
760.6 536.6 272.4 1.4
6.8 34.6 7.2 -6.7
830.5 198.1 317.8
829.0 197.1 318.0
880.3 210.1 323.1
6.0 6.1 1.7
$7,104.9
$7,033.1
$7,625.9
Education & human resources Major research equipment Other TOTAL
CHANGE 2012–14
2012a
$ MILLIONS
7.9% 5.5 5.9
7.3%
… as increases are slated for core chemistry-related divisions ... 2012a
2013b
Ocean Sciences Materials Research Physics Atmospheric & Geospace Sciences Mathematical Sciences Chemistry Astronomical Sciences Integrative Organismal Systems Earth Sciences Environmental Biology Molecular & Cellular Biosciences
$351.8 294.4 277.4 258.7 237.7 234.0 234.7 212.4 183.4 142.6 125.6
$351.9 294.6 277.4 258.7 237.8 234.1 234.6 212.3 183.5 142.6 125.8
$377.4 314.6 289.0 266.6 244.5 253.7 243.6 225.4 191.2 149.0 136.4
7.3% 6.9 4.2 3.1 2.9 8.4 3.8 6.1 4.2 4.5 8.6
$2,552.7
$2,553.3
$2,691.4
5.4%
TOTAL
2014c
CHANGE 2012–14
$ MILLIONS
… and the number of grants is expected to jump 2012a
Competitive awards Number Funding rate Research grants Number Funding rate Median annualized size Average annualized size Average duration, years
2013b
2014c
CHANGE 2012–14
11,500 24%
11,700 21%
12,600 24%
9.6% nm
7,900 21% $131,200 $164,700 2.9
7,800 19% $128,500 $161,200 3.0
8,800 22% $133,950 $168,600 2.9
11.4% nm 2.1% 2.4% nm
a Actual. b Based on continuing resolution in place until March 26, but excludes 0.6% overall budget increase. c Proposed. d Reflects 2013 NSF reorganization. nm = not meaningful. SOURCE: National Science Foundation
makes NSF a lead agency on undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and graduate fellowships. NSF is still figuring out exactly how that money will be spent, including which fellowship programs will be expanded or created. The Engineering Directorate is also slated for a large jump in funding for 2014, with a 10.5% increase from 2012 to $911 million. CEN.ACS.ORG
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And the Mathematical & Physical Sciences Directorate, which includes the Chemistry Division, is set to grow by 5.9% to $1.4 billion in 2014. Among the disciplinary divisions, the Chemistry Division will receive one of the largest percent increases, with a proposed 8.4% bump from 2012 to $254 million in 2014. The Molecular & Cellular Biosciences Division is set for a similar increase,
NIH Translational research center continues to increase
growing by 8.6% to $136 million in 2014. NSF’s overall proposed level of funding would increase the total number of agencywide research grant awards from 7,900 in 2012 to 8,800 in 2014. The agency estimates that 22% of grant applications will be funded, up slightly from 21% in 2012. The increasing number of applications is of concern, however, and NSF plans to spend $4 million in 2014 to study new ways to streamline how it processes applications in its merit review system. In addition to funding grants, NSF also plans to spend 6.1% more on major construction projects, including supporting two new telescopes. The overall budget for construction and equipment purchases would rise from $198 million in 2012 to $210 million in 2014. The project with the biggest budget in 2014 would be the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), which will get $98 million in 2014 to place 30 observing stations across the U.S. to look for ecological changes with a wide range of causes. Although advanced manufacturing isn’t a major part of NSF’s budget, it is a presidential priority. NSF will be spending an additional $49 million in 2014 for a total budget of $160 million on research related to high-tech manufacturing. That will include an investment in computer-driven manufacturing systems, a robotics development effort, and additional support of the federal Materials Genome Initiative, which aims to catalog the properties of many materials including those important to industry. NSF will also put $20 million toward the President’s new Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative, a multiagency effort that aims to develop technologies needed to understand the workings of the human brain.—ANDREA WIDENER
NIH: FUNDING REMAINS FLAT, BUT OFFERS RELIEF FROM SEQUESTRATION Under the President’s proposed fiscal 2014 budget, the National Institutes of Health would receive $31.3 billion, a modest increase of $471 million or 1.5% compared with fiscal 2012. Despite NIH’s relatively 1.5% flat budget, advocates for biomedical research say the proposal offers welcome relief to the 5.1% across-theboard cuts the agency received earlier this
2012a
$ MILLIONS
National Institutes Cancer Allergy & Infectious Diseases Heart, Lung & Blood General Medical Sciences Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases Neurological Disorders & Stroke Mental Health Child Health & Human Development Aging Drug Abuse Eye Environmental Health Sciences Arthritis & Musculoskeletal & Skin Diseases Human Genome Research Alcohol Abuse & Alcoholism Deafness & Other Communication Disorders Dental & Craniofacial Research Biomedical Imaging & Bioengineering National Institute on Minority Health & Health Disparities Nursing Research
2014c
CHANGE 2012–14
$27,904 5,063 4,482 3,073 2,426 1,794 1,623 1,478 1,319 1,120 1,051 701 684 535 512 459 416 410 338
$28,075 5,097 4,513 3,094 2,442 1,806 1,634 1,488 1,328 1,109 1,059 706 689 538 515 462 418 413 340
$28,244 5,126 4,579 3,099 2,401 1,812 1,643 1,466 1,339 1,193 1,072 699 691 541 517 464 423 412 339
276 145
278 145
283 146
2.7 1.2
1,457
1,466
1,473
1.1
574 365 150
578 375 150
666 382 150
15.9 4.8 0.0
128 125 79 69
129 126 79 70
129 126 79 73
1.0 0.6 0.6 4.9
8
8
8
0.0
$30,860
$31,057
$31,331
Ofce of the Director National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences National Library of Medicine Type 1 Diabetes National Center for Complementary & Alternative Medicine Buildings & Facilities Superfund (Interior) Fogarty International Center National Library of Medicine Program Evaluation TOTAL
2013b
1.2% 1.2 2.2 0.8 -1.0 1.0 1.2 -0.8 1.5 6.5 1.9 -0.3 1.0 1.2 1.0 1.1 1.8 0.4 0.3
1.5%
a Actual. b Based on continuing resolution in place until March 26. c Proposed. SOURCE: Department of Health & Human Services
year when sequestration went into effect. NIH Director Francis S. Collins called the proposed budget “an encouragement” after what the agency has been through in fiscal 2013. With the additional money, NIH plans to spend $41 million tackling the challenges and opportunities provided by “big data.” In particular, the agency plans to launch a program called Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K). The program aims to make it easier for researchers to use and share large, complex biomedical data sets. In addition, NIH is hoping the program will lead to new analytical methods and software, as well as enhance the training of data scientists and engineers. NIH will also spend $32 million in 2014 on a new program called Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) to enhance the diversity of the biomedical research workforce. “We have not done as CEN.ACS.ORG
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well as we wish we had in terms of recruiting the best and brightest from all groups,” Collins says. “There are traditionally underrepresented groups that clearly are not finding their way into our workforce in the kinds of numbers that would be good for us and good for them.” The new diversity program will provide opportunities for undergraduate students from traditionally underrepresented groups to work full-time in biomedical research laboratories. It will also set up a national network to provide mentoring for researchers who often fail to receive this assistance because of the current lack of such networks. In 2014, NIH also intends to invest $40 million in the recently announced Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative. The goal of this effort is to accelerate new technologies to produce real-time pictures of complex circuitry in the brain so that re-
GOVERNMENT & POLICY
searchers can unravel how brain function is linked to behavior, learning, and disease. The National Institute on Aging is one of the few NIH institutes that will see a significant increase under the proposed 2014 budget—$73 million or 6.5% compared with 2012, for a total 2014 budget of $1.2 billion. The extra money will be used to support the development of new drugs for Alzheimer’s disease. The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, NIH’s newest center focused on improving the drug development process, will also see a hefty increase in its budget in fiscal 2014. The center is slated to receive $666 million in 2014, $92 million more than in 2012, or a 15.9% increase. Of that additional money, the Cures Acceleration Network (CAN) will receive $40 million, bringing its total budget up to $50 million. CAN aims to reduce barriers between drug discovery and clinical trials. Under the proposed budget, NIH would be able to fund 10,269 new and competing research project grants, an increase of 1,283 grants or 14.3% compared with 2012. Considering all competing and noncompeting research project grants, the agency would be able to fund 36,610 grants, an increase of 351 grants or 1.0% compared with 2012. Advocates for biomedical research welcome the proposed budget but warn that Congress may not go along with the President’s plan to reverse sequestration. The President’s 2014 budget proposal “offers a lifeline for medical research to replace sequestration’s damaging footprints,” says Mary Woolley, president and chief executive officer of Research!America, a group that advocates for increased support for health-related research. “These increases would take our nation in the right direction, but we’re concerned that budget proposals from Congress—one each from the House and Senate—unlike the President’s, fail to reverse sequestration.” Others point out that NIH’s budget has not kept up with the biomedical inflation rate, which is projected to be 2.5% for 2013, for more than a decade. “While we applaud the proposed increase in medical research funding in the President’s budget, it is important to note that this still means that the NIH budget has failed to keep pace with biomedical inflation for 11 consecutive years,” says Darrell G. Kirch, president and CEO of the Association of American Medical Colleges, a nonprofit that represents the academic medical community. That
situation, he notes, “will have dramatic consequences on the pace of medical innovation and will harm communities around the nation.”—BRITT ERICKSON
DEFENSE: CUTS HIT SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT The Department of Defense’s R&D budget dwarfs all other federal research combined, but it has not been spared the ax in President Obama’s proposed 2014 budget. The DOD R&D budget is facing 7.5% overall cuts of 7.5%, down from $73.0 billion in 2012 to $67.5 billion in 2014. That includes a decreasing amount of Overseas Contingency Operations funds, which were dispersed throughout the department to help support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The 2014 cuts mostly come in the development side of the R&D equation, decreasing the amount spent on transitioning research programs into production. The situation is better for DOD’s research portfolio. The three military branch research labs—the Army, Air Force, and Navy—will receive $2.2 billion each, flat funding compared with 2012. They have been hit hard by the across-the-board budget cuts called sequestration because many of the scientists working in those labs are civilian employees and thus subject to furloughs, unlike military personnel. In keeping with the President’s overall support of basic science, DOD’s basic research budget would get a 7.7% increase from 2012 to $2.2 billion in 2014. The focus would be on high-priority areas, including
cybersecurity, robotics, advanced learning, “big data,” energy efficiency, advanced manufacturing, and biodefense. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which funds highrisk basic research projects, also avoided the budget ax. It would get $2.9 billion in 2014, up 1.8% from 2012. A big chunk of the DARPA increase will go toward the President’s proposed Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative, which he announced this month. With a proposed investment of $50 million, DARPA will support technologies designed to study how the brain works.—ANDREA WIDENER
DHS: HUGE JUMP TO SUPPORT NEW BIOCONTAINMENT LAB Funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science & Technology Directorate, the major source of R&D within the department, would more than double under the Administration’s fiscal 2014 budget 126.9% proposal. The White House is seeking slightly more than $1.5 billion, a 126.9% jump from the 2012 level. Most of that increase comes from $714 million in new spending within laboratory facilities for the construction of the proposed National Bio & Agro-Defense Facility in Manhattan, Kan. The high-security biocontainment laboratory would develop countermeasures for diseases originating in large animals that can be transmitted to humans.
DEFENSE Basic research funding will increase as other areas decline 2012a
$ MILLIONS
2013b
2014c
CHANGE 2012–14
Operational systems development System development & demonstration Advanced component development Advanced technology development Applied research RDT&E management support Basic research
$28,065 13,573 13,579 5,318 4,730 5,694 2,010
$26,394 14,967 12,433 5,266 4,478 4,268 2,117
$25,456 13,699 12,057 5,192 4,627 4,325 2,165
-9.3% 0.9 -11.2 -2.4 -2.2 -24.0 7.7
TOTAL
$72,969
$72,998
$67,520
-7.5%
$2,814
$2,817
$2,865
1.8%
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
NOTE: Values include Overseas Contingency Operations requests where appropriate. a Actual. b Based on continuing resolution in place until March 26. Does not include $3.3 billion in undistributed funds. c Proposed. RDT&E = Research, Development, Testing & Evaluation. SOURCE: Department of Defense
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DHS Funding for Science & Technology Directorate is set for a big boost CHANGE 2012–14
2012a
2013b
2014c
Research, development & innovation Management & administration Laboratory facilities Acquisition & operations support University programs
$265.8 135.0 181.5 54.2 36.6
$267.4 135.5 177.6 54.5 36.8
$467.0 129.6 857.8 41.7 31.0
75.7% -4.0 372.6 -23.1 -15.3
TOTAL
$673.1
$671.8
$1,527.1
126.9%
$ MILLIONS
a Actual. b Based on continuing resolution in place until March 26. c Proposed. SOURCE: Department of Homeland Security
The 575,000-sq-ft livestock research facility would be built on 46 acres next to Kansas State University. It would replace the Plum Island Animal Disease Center of New York, which is almost 60 years old. The Administration’s plan requires the state of Kansas to issue an additional $202 million in state bonds. Kansas agreed when it was awarded the project to contribute 20% of the cost of construction. Thus far, the state has committed $140 million for the project. The spending plan for DHS also includes $494 million for agencywide R&D activities “to continue progress in enhancing homeland security technology,” according to the budget document. The funding would be used to seek further advances in the detection of explosives and to rapidly identify chemical and biological threats. In addition, the Administration is calling for a substantial increase in spending on cybersecurity to protect federal computer systems and critical U.S. infrastructure from the growing threat of Internetbased attacks. “Cyber threats are constantly evolving and require a comprehensive response,” the White House says in its request. “The budget supports the expansion of government-wide efforts to counter the full scope of cyber threats.” The National Cyber Security Division within the DHS National Protection & Programs Directorate will receive $810 million under the President’s 2014 request. If approved by Congress, that amount would nearly double the division’s 2012 budget of $440.6 million. The cybersecurity initiative includes $44 million for a new program to develop a comprehensive, coordinated system that fosters information sharing about threats across government agencies and with companies in the private sector. Overall, DHS would receive $39.0 billion in net discretionary funding under the Administration’s 2014 budget plan,
about $625 million less than in 2012. DHS Secretary Janet A. Napolitano says that level of funding is sufficient to preserve “core frontline priorities while making critical investments to grow the economy and secure the homeland.”—GLENN HESS
ENERGY: RENEWABLE ENERGY SET FOR BOOST Chemists and other scientists working on energy efficiency and renewable energy projects will be big winners if the Obama Administration’s proposal for fiscal 2014 survives congressional scrutiny. Maintaining the funding levels 13.2% proposed by the Department of Energy, however, is likely to be tough when legislation comes before this highly partisan, cash-strapped Congress. In fact, many of the research areas earmarked for significant increases in the 2014 budget are nearly identical to ones proposed in the 2013 appropriation but rejected by Congress. That aside, DOE R&D support is strong in the President’s 2014 proposal, receiving a 13.2% jump to $10.7 billion, compared with 2012 levels. Looking at the entire budget, the request for DOE is an 8.0% increase to $28.4 billion, compared with 2012. The recipient of the largest single block of R&D funds would be the Office of Science. The office would receive $5.2 billion, nearly half the department’s total energyrelated R&D funding. That level would mark an increase of 4.4% compared with 2012. Basic Energy Sciences would get the largest share, $1.9 billion, for a 13.2% increase. Department officials and background material provide no breakdown of where the increased funds would go, but in a budget briefing, officials emphasized the importance of DOE’s R&D hubs and the “energy frontier research centers” at various universities and labs. The greatest R&D program increases are in the Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy. Overall, the office would reCEN.ACS.ORG
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ceive a $1 billion jump from 2012 to $2.8 billion. The R&D portion of the office’s budget would grow by $800 million to $2.2 billion in 2014. The heavy clean-energy focus reflects the experience of David T. Danielson, who now manages the office and formerly was a key program director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). The office’s largest increase was a 79.1% jump to $575 million for vehicle technology R&D. The vehicle program’s goal, DOE says, is to reduce petroleum use, greenhouse gas emissions, and vehicle operating costs. Research areas include transportation electrification, lightweight materials, advanced combustion engines, nonpetroleum fuels, and new lubricant technologies. Another facet of the vehicle research program is the EV (Electric Vehicles) Everywhere initiative that aims to develop by 2020 technologies to make electric-powered vehicles as affordable and convenient as gasoline-powered vehicles, “bringing EVs to the average American family,” according to DOE. The initiative focuses on battery technologies and manufacturing processes, power electronics, and electric motors. Other clean energy areas proposed for significant increases compared with 2012 are building technology research, with a 39.7% increase to $300 million, and solar, with a 25.2% boost to $356 million. Also, wind-related R&D would receive a large boost, 56.8%, to $144 million for 2014. For solar, DOE’s goal is to make it competitive with other electricity sources, without subsidies, by 2020, explained Deputy Energy Secretary Daniel B. Poneman. Poneman directed the budget briefing, representing DOE because the department currently has no confirmed energy secretary. Poneman strongly defended the increases for renewables, saying this was “not the time to take our foot off the accelerator,” underscoring the Administration’s view that these technologies are critical to jobs and a growing economy. “The U.S. faces one of the greatest challenges ahead, the opportunity to lead the global clean energy race,” Poneman said. “We must continue to out-innovate, outeducate, and out-build the rest of the world to meet this challenge.” To that end, the President’s proposed budget also includes $365 million for a new Advanced Manufacturing Office within DOE to develop new materials and innovative and energy-efficient manufacturing processes. It is part of a $2.9 billion federal R&D program that is being led by the National Institute of
GOVERNMENT & POLICY
ENERGY R&D Big jump is proposed for renewables, efficiency 2013b
2014c
$4,935 1,645 1,305 592 428 393 571
$4,903 1,698 1,346 613 444 403 398
$5,153 1,862 1,346 625 466 458 395
4.4% 13.2 3.1 5.6 8.9 16.5 -30.8
National Security Nuclear weapons Nonproliferation
2,043 1,695 348
2,147 1,691 456
2,100 1,711 389
2.8 0.9 11.8
Energy Resources Renewable energy & efciency Fossil energy Nuclear energy Electricity delivery & reliability Environmental cleanup
2,223 1,417 337 363 96 10
2,440 1,454 495 378 100 13
3,101 2,237 421 300 119 24
39.5 57.9 24.9 -17.4 24.0 140.0
253
257
345
36.4%
$9,454
$9,747
$10,699
13.2%
Ofce of Science Basic Energy Sciences High Energy & Nuclear Physics Biological & Environmental Research Scientific computing research Fusion energy Other
Advanced Research Projects AgencyEnergy (ARPA-E) TOTAL
Although Poneman was upbeat in his assessment of the budget’s goals and its transformative potential, he noted that funding will be difficult in this “tough, austere budget climate.”—JEFF JOHNSON
CHANGE 2012–14
2012a
$ MILLIONS
NASA: SUPPORT TO ENABLE FUTURE ASTEROID MISSION
a Actual. b Based on continuing resolution in place until March 26. c Proposed. SOURCE: Department of Energy
Standards & Technology and involves a halfdozen agencies, as well as industries and universities. DOE’s ARPA-E program gets a 36.4% increase over its 2012 level under the President’s request. This would give the program $345 million in R&D funds in 2014. ARPA-E supports transformative energy discoveries, helping bring them to commercialization. For 2014, its funding would be split between transportation and stationary power systems technologies. But the budget appears less kind to fossil fuels. The Administration proposes cutting coal-related R&D by 23.0% to $276 million. Those funds are set aside for carbon capture and sequestration research. Fossil fuels, agency officials note, are “mature” technologies with less need for government support. The Obama budget eliminates $4 billion in annual “unwarranted and unnecessary” subsidies to the oil, gas, and coal industries. Concerning nuclear energy research, DOE plans to spend $135 million to support development of new reactor designs, including small modular reactors, and fuel-cycle technologies, a 25.9% reduction from 2012. The budget would also provide $165 million for fuel-cycle R&D, part of which would support activities to design a new waste management system to replace the Yucca Mountain radioactive waste repository. In background documents, DOE estimated development of the waste management pro-
gram would draw about $5.6 billion over 10 years beginning in 2014. Despite DOE’s focus on energy-related research, $17.7 billion—or more than half the agency’s overall budget—supports nuclear weapons under the President’s request. About $11.6 billion of this funding is tagged to maintain and refurbish the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile and another $6.1 billion is earmarked to clean up and isolate radioactive and hazardous waste at former weapons sites. Some $2.1 billion of the nuclear weapons and nonproliferation budget is R&D related, a small increase over 2012. This funding is directed to nuclear weapon reliability.
President Obama is proposing a slight drop in funds for the National Aeronautics & Space Administration in fiscal 2014 as compared with 2012. The $17.7 billion request—down 0.3% from 2012—reflects the fiscal realities 0.3% while better aligning the agency’s activities to meet the President’s challenge of sending humans to an asteroid by 2025 and to Mars in the 2030s. As a result, the proposed budget includes cuts to areas such as planetary science and astrophysics to balance requested increases in other areas such as exploration and space technology. NASA’s education funding is also being cut, but this is due to a proposed consolidation of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education efforts across the federal government. “The President’s fiscal year 2014 budget ensures that we, the U.S., remain the world’s leader in space exploration and scientific discovery for years to come, while making critical advances in aerospace and aeronautics to benefit the American people,” said NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr. at the agency’s budget briefing. Under the proposed plan, NASA would
NASA Exploration, technology development are slated for increases 2012a
2013b
2014c
Science Exploration Space operations Cross-agency support Space technology Construction, environmental compliance & restoration Aeronautics Education Inspector general
$5,074 3,707 4,184 2,994 574
$5,116 3,790 4,248 3,012 579
$5,018 3,916 3,883 2,850 743
495 569 136 38
402 573 137 38
609 566 94 37
TOTAL
$17,771
$17,895
$17,716
$ MILLIONS
a Actual. b Based on continuing resolution in place until March 26. c Proposed. SOURCE: National Aeronautics & Space Administration
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CHANGE 2012–14
-1.1% 5.6 -7.2 -4.8 29.4 23.0 -0.5 -30.9 -2.6 -0.3%
fully fund efforts to develop new spacecraft both in-house and by third parties. The budget provides $2.7 billion to develop its own next-generation deep-space crew capsule and heavy-lift rocket. And $821 million is provided to support NASAsponsored commercial efforts to develop transports to the International Space Station. The agency also announced it will initiate planning for a human asteroid mission, which is targeted to take place before 2025. In addition, the budget provides funds for another Mars rover. For ongoing activities, the budget maintains support for rovers and orbiters already on or near the Red Planet. The budget also supports the MAVEN mission, which is set to launch in November to study the martian upper atmosphere, and the InSight mission, a Mars rover that is scheduled to launch in 2016 to probe deeper into martian soil. To better study our own plant, the President provides $1.8 billion in 2014. This funding will maintain U.S. weather and climate-change modeling capabilities and will support R&D, airborne science, and technology development. The 2014 budget also slates $658 million to keep the James Webb Space Telescope on schedule to launch in 2018.—SUSAN MORRISSEY
been funded, primarily by the Department of Defense. Beyond this one-time increase, NIST’s research labs also get a significant increase, up 22.4% from 2012 to $694 million in 2014. This growth translates to double-digit percentage increases across nearly all of NIST’s research centers. The largest percent growth is for standards coordina-
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COMMERCE: NIST, NOAA GET BUDGET HIKES The Department of Commerce research— including National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) and the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—will get a boost of more than $1.5 billion over 2012 levels under President Obama’s 156.8% proposed fiscal 2014 budget. NIST NIST is slated to get $1.9 billion under the 2014 request, up from $751 million in 2012. This 156.8% funding increase will primarily go to a one-time investment in the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation, a main focus of the President’s multiagency push for advanced manufacturing. The $1.0 billion effort supports 15 new manufacturing research hubs focused on different areas important to industry. The network was proposed in the President’s 2013 budget but never supported by Congress. However, a pilot project on three-dimensional printing has already
tion, which would go up 90.8% from 2012 to $58 million in 2014. The information technology, materials measurement, and engineering laboratories would also get big funding boosts. Manufacturing receives support across the board in the proposed NIST budget, including a $21 million investment in a new program called the Advanced Manufac-
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GOVERNMENT & POLICY
NIST Laboratories set to see big boost
Laboratories & Services Physical Measurement Laboratory Information Technology Laboratory Material Measurement Laboratory Engineering Laboratory Standards coordination & special programs Center for Neutron Research Center for Nanoscale Science & Technology Innovations in measurement science program Corporate services Postdoctoral research associates program Strategic & emerging research initiative fund
2013b
2014c
$567.0 123.5 98.3 101.7 77.3 30.5 41.5 33.0 20.2 18.5 13.0 9.5
$570.5 124.2 98.8 102.5 77.8 30.5 41.8 33.2 20.3 18.7 13.2 9.5
$693.8 137.3 137.0 122.5 96.3 58.2 41.4 39.5 20.3 18.8 12.9 9.6
128.4 55.4
129.2 55.7
153.1 60.0
19.2 8.3
ne
ne
21.4
nm
ne
ne
1,000.0
nm
$750.8
$755.4
$1,928.3
156.8%
Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership Construction of research facilities Advanced Manufacturing Technology Consortia National Network for Manufacturing Innovationd TOTALd
CHANGE 2012–14
2012a
$ MILLIONS
22.4% 11.2 39.4 20.5 24.6 90.8 -0.2 19.7 0.5 1.6 -0.8 1.1
a Actual adjusted for NIST internal reorganization. b Based on continuing resolution in place until March 26. c Proposed. d One-time investment to launch 15 manufacturing research hubs. ne = nonexistent. nm = not meaningful. SOURCE: National Institute of Standards & Technology
turing Technology Consortia that would provide cost-sharing grants to companies to improve manufacturing and address industry-wide research challenges. The Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership, a longtime NIST program that links local companies nationwide with technical experts, also gets more support in the 2014 budget, up 19.2% from 2012 to $153 million. Cybersecurity, a presidential priority, is slated to get $44 million in additional funding in four NIST programs: Cybersecurity: R&D & Standards, the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace, the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education, and Cyber-Physical Systems. At NOAA, the President provides $5.4 billion for 2014, up 10.2% from 2012. That increase will in part support building new satellites that monitor weather and observe Earth. 10.2% The current satellites are aging, NOAA and replacing them has been the subject of considerable controversy, including congressional hearings. Basic research at NOAA also fares well in the proposed budget; its funding would increase to $733 million from $574 million estimated for 2012. The Office of Oceanic & Atmospheric Research, which oversees some of NOAA’s basic science and ocean chemistry research, will get an increase from $380 million in 2012 to $472 million in 2014.—ANDREA WIDENER
AGRICULTURE: COMPETITIVE RESEARCH FUNDS SET TO RISE The Department of Agriculture’s research budget would get a boost under the President’s proposed fiscal 2014 budget. USDA would receive $2.9 billion for agricultural R&D, an increase of 6.3% compared with 2012. 6.3% Four USDA agencies have jurisdiction over research: the National Institute of Food & Agriculture (NIFA), the Agricul-
tural Research Service (ARS), the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), and the Economic Research Service (ERS). NIFA, which funds extramural research, is set to see its budget fall to $1.3 billion, a loss of $7 million compared with 2012. Funding for NIFA’s primary competitive research grants program, the Agriculture & Food Research Initiative, however, will rise to $383 million, a jump of $119 million, or 45.1%, compared with 2012. Some of the Agriculture & Food Research Initiative’s priorities for 2014 include beefing up the food- and agriculture-related workforce, ensuring water security, improving nutrient management in agricultural areas, reducing the impacts of chemicals of emerging concern on water resources, improving food security, minimizing antibiotic resistance transmission through the food chain, strengthening the sustainability of biomass production, and mitigating the effects of climate change on agriculture. ARS, which conducts in-house research in agricultural sciences, will see its 2014 budget rise to $1.3 billion, an increase of $178 million, or 15.8%, compared with 2012, under the President’s request. A large chunk of the extra money, some $155 million, will be used to replace USDA’s Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory in Athens, Ga., an outdated facility focused on poultry diseases. Other priorities include reducing the cost of biobased products and biofuels, identifying animal genomic data to improve animal health, boosting crop yields, and ensuring food safety. Funding for agricultural statistics is flat
EPA Research is slashed on health, environmental effects of polluted sites CHANGE 2012–14
$ MILLIONS
2012a
2013b
2014c
Sustainable communities Chemical safety & sustainability Clean air & climate Safe & sustainable water Air, climate & energy Operations & administration Homeland security Enforcement Pesticide licensing Indoor air & radiation IT/data management Water—human health protection Congressionally mandated projects
$173.5 136.5 119.5 114.3 103.6 72.9 39.0 16.4 6.2 6.5 3.3 3.7 0.1
$174.7 131.0 125.2 113.4 98.7 72.4 42.1 15.3 6.6 6.8 3.7 3.8 5.0
$147.4 134.8 126.0 117.9 105.7 75.7 40.0 15.9 6.2 6.7 4.0 3.6 na
-15.0% -1.2 5.4 3.1 2.0 3.8 2.6 -3.0 0.0 3.1 21.2 -2.7 nm
TOTAL
$795.5
$798.7
$783.9
-1.5%
a Actual. b Based on continuing resolution in place until March 26. c Proposed. na = not applicable. nm = not meaningful. SOURCE: Environmental Protection Agency
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in the President’s request. NASS would receive $159 million, exactly the same amount it got in 2012. Approximately $42 million of that amount would be used to complete the 2012 Census of Agriculture. ERS, the agency that provides economic and other social science information about agriculture, would see a small increase. The proposed 2014 budget requests $79 million for ERS, an increase of $1 million, or 1.3%, compared with 2012.—BRITT ERICKSON
while maximizing the economic benefit of those substances. This work, the agency says, is aimed in part at developing tools for sustainable molecular design and life-cycle analysis. To counter the increase for inherently safer process and product development, EPA would pare research on endocrinedisrupting chemicals, nanomaterials, and
EPA: RESEARCH ON CONTAMINATED SITES SCALED BACK The President is asking for nearly $12 million less for the Environmental Protection Agency’s science and technology efforts in fiscal 2014 than Congress provided in fiscal 2012. 1.5% The President is seeking almost $784 million; EPA’s 2012 appropriation was $796 million. The agency’s science efforts on sustainable communities, which include research into human health and environmental effects from polluted sites, would take the biggest hit. The Administration’s request slashes this program by more than $26 million, taking it from $174 million in 2012 down to $147 million in 2014. EPA says this cut would delay ongoing research on the effects of pollution on public health, children, and minority populations; shrink its study of the impacts on children of exposure to cleaning materials in schools; and reduce research on goods and services that ecosystems provide. EPA would lose two popular fellowship programs as part of a government-wide consolidation of science education programs. This action would eliminate more than $16 million from EPA’s budget for its Science to Achieve Results fellowships for master’s and doctoral candidates and Greater Research Opportunities fellowships for undergraduates. Under the President’s request, funding for chemical safety and sustainability research at EPA will decline slightly, from $137 million in 2012 to $135 million in 2014. The budget proposal also refocuses this research program. The agency plans to pour an additional $4 million into developing inherently safer processes and products that reduce or eliminate harm to human health or the environment associated with the manufacture, use, and disposal of chemicals CEN.ACS.ORG
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the use of computational toxicology to inform chemical regulatory efforts. EPA also plans to expand its research related to hydraulic fracturing or fracking, a technique to extract natural gas and oil from shale. The agency would spend nearly $4 million to examine the potential impact of fracking on air quality and an additional $4 million to study how fracking opera-
tions affect aquatic ecosystems. These efforts would be done as part of an interagency research effort with the Departments of Energy and of the Interior. This work is separate from an EPA study, expected to be finished in late 2014, on whether fracking adversely affects drinking water supplies. In another change proposed by the President, the agency plans to cut $1 million from its science and technology budget in part by eliminating the agency’s evaluation of technologies to control emissions of mercury from coal-fired power plants. Under the budget proposal, EPA will fold its work on mercury into another program that studies a suite of pollutants emitted from coal-burning facilities.—CHERYL HOGUE
INTERAGENCY INITIATIVES: EDUCATION RESHUFFLED, CLIMATE UP, NANOTECH REDUCED A mass consolidation of federal science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education programs would be implemented if Congress agrees with the President’s fiscal 2014 proposal. These programs would be reduced from 226 in 2012 to 112 in 2014. This consolidation would include eliminating or reorganizing 114 programs to save approximately $180 million. But the President’s proposal includes new funding, and overall, the STEM education budget would rise from $2.9 billion in 2012 to $3.1 billion in 2014. The budget also provides for the creation of an Advanced Research Projects Agency for Education (ARPA-ED) in the Department of Education to test highrisk, high-reward education research—a program the Administration has proposed for several years, but Congress has yet to support it. Under the President’s plan, almost every agency faces a decrease in its STEM education budget. Only two agencies are 6.7% spared cuts: the Department Education of Education and the National Science Foundation. Together, these two agencies will become hubs for STEM education government-wide under the new plan. The Education Department would become the primary agency supporting STEM education at the K–12 level, with funding of $814 million in 2014, up 53.9%
from 2012. NSF would become the point agency of both undergraduate and graduate STEM funding, including many fellowships. It would get a boost of 7.7% to $1.2 billion in 2014. In addition, the Smithsonian Institution would get $25 million to become the lead on informal STEM education efforts that happen outside of schools or universities, including museums and other settings. The White House is also proposing a 6.0% increase for the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP). This climate-change-focused effort involving 13 federal agencies would get $2.7 billion for fiscal 2014, up from the $2.5 billion Congress provided in 2012. The National Institutes of Health would see the largest percent increase, with funding more than doubling from $6 million in 2012 to $15 million in 2014 to continue 6.0% its support of research on USGCRP the health effects of global change. The U.S. Geological Survey, part of the Interior Department, would also see a significant rise, increasing 22.0% from $59 million in 2012 to $72 million in 2014. According to USGS budget documents, the boost would in part go to a program that identifies long-term patterns of drought, improves estimates of potential sea-level
THE BUDGET PROCESS: PROPOSAL NOW GOES TO CONGRESS The fiscal 2014 budget now goes to the House of Representatives and Senate Appropriations Committees, where each group will divide it into 13 appropriations bills. Hearings will be held on each bill by various committees, and legislation will emerge that sets the levels of spending for all federal departments and agencies. The numbers approved by Congress may be very different from those originally proposed by the Administration, but historically, R&D has not been radically changed. The whole process is supposed to be completed and the bills signed by the President by Sept. 30, the last day of fiscal 2013.
rise, and examines ecosystem response to sea-level rise. In actual dollars, the National Aeronautics & Space Administration, which gets more than half of this research program’s budget, would get the largest increase. NASA would see its funding for USGCRP efforts rise from $1.4 billion in 2012 to $1.5 billion in 2014. NASA’s dollars in USGCRP go mainly to satellite programs. The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration and the National Institute of Standards & Technology would see their combined USGCRP monies rise by some $44 million to $371 million in 2014, a 13.5% increase from 2012. NOAA would use most of the increase for Earth observation activities, which include detecting, understanding, and forecasting climate change at the global and ecosystem levels. NIST’s contribution for USGCRP would be development of optical technology standards for environmental monitoring instruments used in climate studies for measuring temperature and composition of the atmosphere. In contrast to education and climate research, the federal effort on nanotechnology research would take a hit under the President’s 8.6% proposed 2014 budget. The NNI National Nanotechnology Initiative, established in 2001 to coordinate nanotech research among 25 federal agencies, would receive $1.7 billion, a decrease of 8.6% compared with 2012. The Departments of Energy, of Health & Human Services (HHS), and of Homeland Security, as well as NIST, will all invest more in nanotech research in 2014 than in 2012. DOE’s investment would increase 17.8% to $370 million; HHS would spend 1.7% more, or $488 million; DHS would increase its portion 86.5% to $35 million; and NIST would boost its investment 7.0% to $102 million. The bulk of the additional money will be spent on signature initiatives, including nanomanufacturing, solar energy, sustainable design of nanoengineered materials, nanoscale sensors, and nanoelectronics. On the other hand, under the White House request, DOD’s contribution will decrease 49.1% to $217 million, and NSF’s investment will fall 7.6% to $431 million. It is unclear what areas will be subject to the cuts.—BRITT ERICKSON, CHERYL HOGUE & ANDREA WIDENER
DATA ONLINE CEN.ACS.ORG
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See 2014 budget tables for USDA, STEM education, climate change, and nanotechnology at http://cenm.ag/fed2014. APRIL 22, 2013
